I
witnessed Moya Michael present her first full evening of work at the Purcell
Room. Having seen the work of Akram Khan and Robert Hylton both exceptional
artists each with his individual aesthetics, I was further entranced by
the work of Moya Michael. There is a lot happening in British contemporary
dance but these choreographers seem to be carving their own niche in the
canon. One can note the compositional strategies of improvisation; relationships
in space, fragmentation and augmentation resulting in intriguing movement
dynamics and body design that side steps conventional contemporary dance
movement vocabularies.

Also seen on this program was a solo, ‘Invoking the First’, choreographed
by Gregory Vuyani Maqoma performed by Dada Masilo. The sound track for
this work was a monologue spoken by Masilo discussing dance; to be inspired
to embody it, craft it, and contemplate its effect on self, on those who
watch it. Masilo standing in the performance space was powerful and her
moves although contained illustrated her particular embodied knowledge
of contemporary dance. Inverted attitudes accompanied sequencing of the
spine and supple arms moving through out the space. Masilo is a strong
performer with breath who treads the ground between presenting personality
and being the object of a dance.

’Escotilla’ performed by three nine to ten-year-old girls and ‘Chamisela’
performed by three nine to ten year old boys was commissioned by Crying
out Loud, London. ’Escotilla’ means Hatch in Spanish and ‘Chamisela’ means
Hatch in Zulu. An abstract exploration on the surface to me was a metonym
for insects and in particular, spiders. The children performed some complicated
spacial and figural concepts with ease. Sweetness laced with purpose the
spacing varied relationships and varied use of conventional improvisation
exercises. There were solos for those more confident followed by each
person leading the joints of another and fragmentation that moved in and
out of the floor. Aideen Malone designed the lighting with sound by Steve
Blake that also had the voice of Michael directing the children as they
went through their dance. The children’s dance seemed a collection of
their experiences with movement strung together like beads on a string.
The performance skill for some of the young dancers was exceptional despite
the few moments of breaking the fourth wall with a slight smile to familiar
or perhaps family faces in the audience. Sophistication is the environment
the children moved through and so what could have been a recital for children’s
creative dance transformed into an occasion that revealed one choreographer’s
aesthetic, her particular kind of art.

In 'Hatch', the inspiration for
’Escotilla’ and ‘Chamisela',
Michael and her dancers Shanell Winlock and Maho Ihara take the children’s
explorations to another place. The sound and lighting creates the same
environment as that given for the children but a different dynamic is
achieved. Spiders, the image at the beginning, for me presented an insect-like,
eight legged object, peering out, feeling the surface of the floor, looking
more like pincers than hands. Dance transcends and so this dance turned
the dancer from human to something imaginable. Trick with the strobe light
struck on and off continued the illusions that divorced personality and
enlivened movement. This contemporary dance transcends modern expressionist
dance, no longer lyrical, it sidesteps ballet and even transcends some
of its own contemporaries. Resembling more the fragmentation of exquisite
urban dance experts presenting eloquent body waves, body locks, and moon
walks transformed into glides. In the depths of this work you glimpsed
the structural strategies that laid the foundation for movement discovery.
The relationship in space and the progressions from a small gesture of
the hand that involved the arm then, renewed focus that brought twist
of the head, break back, drop to floor, and then slide. This work, this
choreographer, at present situated at the margin, is already part of a
collection of aesthetics that is decentring the mainstream.